Moscow, March 17, Interfax - Scientists have provedexperimentally the miracle-working properties of thesign of the cross and prayer.

‘We have ascertained that the old custom to make asign of the cross over food and drink before a mealhas a profound mystical meaning. Standing behind it isthe practical use: the food is purified literally inan instant. This is a great miracle, which happensliterally every day,’ physicist Angelina Malakhovskayasaid as cited by the Zhizn newspaper on Friday.

Malakhovskaya have studied that power of the sign ofthe cross with the blessing of the Church for nearlyten years now. She has carried out a great number ofexperiments, which have been repeatedly verifiedbefore their results were made public.

She has discovered in particular the uniquebactericidal properties of water after being blessedby an Orthodox prayer and a sign of the cross. Thestudy also revealed a new, earlier unknown property ofthe Word of God to transform the structure of water,increasing considerably its optical density in theshort ultra-violet spectral region, the newspaperwrites.

The scientists have verified the impact the Lord’sPrayer and the Orthodox sign of the cross make onpathogenic bacteria. Water samples from variousreservoirs - wells, rivers, lakes - were taken for theresearch. All the samples had goldish taphylococcus, acolon bacillus. It turned out however, that if theLord’s Prayer is said and a sign of the cross is madeover them, the number of harmful bacteria willdecrease seven, ten, hundred and even over thousandtimes.

The experiments were made in such a way as to excludea possible impact of mental suggestion. The prayer wassaid by both believer and non-believers, but thenumber of pathogenic bacteria in various environmentswith different sets of bacteria still decreased ascompared to the reference templates.

The scientists have also proved the beneficial impactthat the prayer and the sign of the cross have onpeople. All the participants in the tests had theirblood pressure stabilized and blood indexes improved.Strikingly, the indexes changed towards the healingneeded: hypotensive people had their blood pressureraised, while hypertensive people had it reduced.

It was also observed that if the sign of the cross ismade offhandedly, with the three fingers put togetherunscrupulously or placed outside the necessary points- the middle of the forehead, the center of the solarplexus and the recesses in the right and leftshoulders - the positive result was much weaker orabsent altogether.

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Orthodoc

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Oh Lord, Save thy people and bless thine inheritance.Grant victory to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries.And by virtue of thy Cross preserve thy habitation.

there was a thread here not long ago about how holy water doesn't get nasty in the bottle; it seem to remain preserved fresh for inordinately long periods of time.

I have been placing a drop and praying over my wife's arthritic thumb joint and she always comments how it doesn't run; it just forms a bead until I spread it around in the sign of the cross and pray. Unlike regular water.

Maybe there is something to this!? (not my praying; I mean the study regarding the power of prayer and the sign of the cross)

"Let us not expect the spiritual spring if we don't first pass through the spiritual winter during which the spiritual vermin die. We mustn't expect the divine to blossom within us if the human hasn't first died."

It was also observed that if the sign of the cross ismade offhandedly, with the three fingers put togetherunscrupulously or placed outside the necessary points- the middle of the forehead, the center of the solarplexus and the recesses in the right and leftshoulders - the positive result was much weaker orabsent altogether.

OK...this last part seems out of place or something that could have been written by the folks from the 'Onion Dome'.... it's not "effective faith" until we get that sign of the cross down to a tee... Better practice on making the 'perfect' sign of the cross or else you could be drinking some nasty bacteria filled water lol.

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"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."--Mere Christianity

there was a thread here not long ago about how holy water doesn't get nasty in the bottle; it seem to remain preserved fresh for inordinately long periods of time.

I have been placing a drop and praying over my wife's arthritic thumb joint and she always comments how it doesn't run; it just forms a bead until I spread it around in the sign of the cross and pray. Unlike regular water.

Maybe there is something to this!? (not my praying; I mean the study regarding the power of prayer and the sign of the cross)

I have Holy Water that is about 8 or 9 years old and still fresh.

Orthodoc

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Oh Lord, Save thy people and bless thine inheritance.Grant victory to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries.And by virtue of thy Cross preserve thy habitation.

I have read quotes by hierarchs or monastics about "not waiving your hand in the air," that that is not efficacious, and therefore taking the effort to properly make the sign of the cross, both with your hand and touching the proper 4 spots

I think it is a mtter of respect and a reminder to do it mindfully and respectfully, not just out of reflex, mindlessly making a cross in the air in front of yourself

Perhaps that is what it was referring to.

But that part also gave me pause; I was thinking, "was this study commissioned by very strcit traditionalists?"; or, even if the research is true, is some tradtitionalist throwing in an editorialized anecdotal observation?

I have read quotes by hierarchs or monastics about "not waiving your hand in the air," that that is not efficacious, and therefore taking the effort to properly make the sign of the cross, both with your hand and touching the proper 4 spots

I think it is a mtter of respect and a reminder to do it mindfully and respectfully, not just out of reflex, mindlessly making a cross in the air in front of yourself

Indeed. It's about the heart behind the hands! I don't think this article, or even the hierarchs/monastics in question, are trying to get people to do the ritual exactly right and perfect every time, but rather to do it with the right heart every time. Just as a pure heart and "bad" crossing can lead to God, also a bad heart and "pure" crossing can lead away.

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Fashions and opinions among men may change, but the Orthodox tradition remains ever the same, no matter how few may follow it.